>> yes. >> are you buying? >> that does it for us tonight. thank you. to all of the winners, congratulations, to the losers, come back and try again. goodnight, everybody. ♪ ♪ the texas-sized talent with charm to burn. >> love life, love women, good life, good family. >> matthew mcconaughey. his journey from promising newcomer. >> i'm young and inexperienced. >> to a rom-com king. a career that veered off track. he took himself out of the game.

>> i needed to pull back on what i had been doing. i didn't work for two years. >> what do you say, boys? >> a comeback that nobody saw coming. >> best performance by an actor in a leading role. >> it put him in the oscar race. >> i'm having a great time. tonight, cnn "spotlight matthew mcconaughey." i'm michelle turner. welcome to texas hill country. where matthew mcconaughey was born, raised, and still calls home. it has produced some pretty colorful characters. after a career spanning two decades, matthew is finally getting his dew for playing another remarkable texan in one of the year's most celebrated movies. >> one story, rooted in texas,

now oscar nominated. it's texas grown lead actor oscar nominated, too. >> welcome to the dallas buyers club. >> i was fortunate to be in what i think is a damn good movie. >> matthew mcconaughey in his moment. >> this is celebration time now. >> the actor with the major award season mojo. >> it feels good. a goden globe, a screen actors guild award, unending praise for his portrayal of ron woodruff in "dallas buyers club." the movie and it's star both kwiquintessentia quintessentially texas.

basking in award season. >> you have to be having the time of your life? >> yeah, i have been doing this 22 years, it is my first time nominated. a film and a performance that has had some light shown on it. the film and the work is proceeding me. and i will talk about it until the cows come home. >> you should explain what it is. >> the dallas buyers club. >> it's about a guy. >> it is wild and you lost so much weight. >> we have to congratulate you because this has been a great year for you. >> you were so brilliant, the film is so good. >> we will begin where we always begin. where were you born? >> texas. >> 7.6 square miles in southwest texas.

>> he is an authentic texas character. a fellow texan profiled him early in his career. >> that part is flat, dusty, and freaky if you didn't grow up there. if you did it feels normal. >> he is the youngest son to jay and kim mcconaughey. a former football player turned oil pipe salesman. jim moves the family to east texas in the oil boom where matthew plays on the golf team and wins an award for best looks at longview high. after graduation he enrolls in the university of texas at austin. always a good student, he revealed on "inside the actor studio" that acting was not in his original plan. >> i was headed towards law

school. and i switched to go to film school after my sophomore year. >> it is here at this austin hotel where a chance meeting become a big moment. he learned a casting director was sitting near by. he introduces himself, and somehow gets an audition for the next movie "dazed and confused." >> the thing i love about high school girls -- >> "dazed and confused" releases in 1993. the charter in only a handful of scenes, steals them. >> all right, all right, all right. >> and all right, all right, all right becomes his lifelong catch phrase. >> those were the first three

words that came out of my mouth. >> it's soothing. it kind of getting everybody in the mood like all right, all right, all right. >> people know where it came from, and it's like just said that way, yeah, all right. >> all right, all right, all right. >> a sequel to "texas chainsaw massacre" follows and a full fledged acting career follows. he hopscotches through movies. by the time "lonestar" comes out, he is becoming a marqucquc marquee name. he gets a call for a film "a time to kill." he was going to audition for a

different part, but he impressed joe schumaker to the part that he red for jake bergantz. >> the lead role, based on personal experiences as a lawyer. >> i'm young and i'm inexperienced. >> studio executives balk at putting a unknown in the lead. >> this was not a small movie. this was a big, expensive movie. and the leading role was played by a guy that nobody had heard of. and he was just some guy from texas. >> the marketing campaign heats up on the eve of the film's release in the summer of 1996. >> remember this name and remember this face. he is the star of "a time to kill" and his name is matthew mcconaughey, and he will bring

lots of people into your theaters. >> 18 years later, he would describe "a time to kill" which is the film that made him instantaneously famous. >>over one weekend. >> yeah. >> the handsome leading man taking hollywood by storm and keeps the tabloids talking. so our business can be on at&t's network for $175 a month? yup. all 5 of you for $175. our clients need a lot of attention. there's unlimited talk and text. we're working deals all day. you get 10 gigabytes of data to share. what about expansion potential? add a line, anytime, for $15 a month. low dues, great terms. let's close!

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♪ >> drop the case. >> i quit. >> with the success of "a time to kill" matthew mcconaughey is suddenly a hot commodity. >> there was a moment of where

are you going with this? >> he goes with contact. a sci-fi film. >> he was playing a charismatic preacher charter in "contact." >> a very awkward fit, i thought. another lawyer, but this time with muttenchops. it didn't really connect with the academy or audiences. >> i'm going to have to pass. it's not an age thing. a comedy about a guy who lets a camera crew follow his every move. >> maybe this is not a good idea. >> "ed tv" gets poor reception. >> the movie wasn't bad, and it wasn't great, either. >> the film may not connect with

moviegoers, but mcconaughey can connect with a character whose personal life is exposed for all to see. >> the paparazzi capture him with a succession of leading ladies. >> we all play games. >> patricia arquette, ashley judd, penelope cruz, and sandra bullock. >> privacy is the toughest part. my private life is mine. and i didn't like sharing it before i was famous. when no one gave a damn. now every wants to know. >> protecting that life is no simple. >> it takes a little moxie to defend it. i can go get a place and put up

40 foot walls and be a recluse. >> what makes him tick is a subject of curiosity. fans learned he dances to the beat of a different drum. specifically a bongo. >> matthew mcconaughey is free on bail. >> police say he was apparently intoxicated, dancing in the living room naked and playing bongo drums. >> it becomes so famous, it even gets a puppet parody treatment. >> i could see a nude white male dancing and playing bongo drums. >> mcconaughey may live an unorthodox life, but his movie roles are becoming more and more conventional. >> he is strong. he is sturdy. >> hollywood leans on him for a

string of romantic comedies. "how to lose a guy in ten days" with kate hudson. and "failure to launch" with sarah jessica parker. >> they were all moneymakers. he has nothing but fond memories of making them. >> critics are not so fond. he is nothing like this rather tedious handsome man. >> you live with your parents? >> is that a problem? >> they may not require him to flix his acting muscles, but they show off his smoking bod. he is not afraid with displaying them off screen, either. >> you open "people" or "us weekly" and then there he is

with no shirt on. >> he was sexiest man alive. by 2007, mcconaughey has given his heart to a single lady. a brazilian bomb shell, camila. >> in 2008, they welcome their first child,son levi. >> i'm a father. i have a woman that i love and care about. it's her and i. >> his personal life has come together, but professionally, the picture is mixed. >> we're doing a great job. we're still here, right? >> "fools gold," "surfer dude," and sahara were to the taking

off. >> still, there are occasional glimpses of what he is truly capable. >> "reign of fire." >> one man down. at that rate we might be getting somewhere in about 320 years. >> there is a flash of the old mcconaughey that caught everybody's idea in "dazed and confused." >> i wanted to make a movie that was also a piece of art. >> "we are marshall" was great. >> i'm flattered, really. >> as his 30s evaporate, he decides to make another romantic comedy, gho"ghosts of girlfrien past." >> it comes out, he is 40.

there has to be a moment when you look in the mirror and say what am i doing with my life? >> i'm trying to make it right. >> coming up, matthew mcconaughey takes stock, and decides to go in a bold new direction. >> mr. woodruff? you have 30 days left. geico motorcycle. see how much you could save. so i got the new nokia lumia icon. it's got 1080p video, three times zoom, and a twenty-megapixel sensor. it's got the brightest display, so i can see what i'm shooting -- even outdoors,

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but he is about to make a major professional shift. >> i had a sense that i needed to pull back on what i had been doing. >> he pulls back on what he has become known for and steps out of the spotlight. i didn't work for two years. not because i didn't want to, i said i enjoy those, i may do them again, but i want to do something different. those were dramatic roles in smaller independent films. >> in those two years i think i gained a little anonymity. i become a new idea. i got calls and offers for roles that scared me in a good way and i went to work. >> films like "the lincoln lawyer" where a defense attorney has a crisis of conscious. it sets him on a path toward darker and grittier roles. next, playing a detective with a

side gig as a contract assassin in "killer joe." he follows with a performance in a tree dwelling fugitive "mud." >> a top hollywood director takes notice of his new work and casts him in a role that brings an entirely different kind of exposure. >> the law says that you cannot touch, but i think i see a lot of law breaks. he works on screen magic as a club owner and stripper stud in "magic mike." it is like he is performing to buy his soul out of hell. >> the success of "magic mike"

gives him momentum for the most challenging project to date. >> "dallas buyers club" was on his desk for years and he really want today get it made. >> you have tested positive for hiv. >> he works around the system to increase access to medication. >> they got good meds in mexico that's better than you can get in the states. >> the story is a tough sell and is turned down more than 100 times. it finally shoots in 2012 for an estimating $5 million in 25 days. his physical transformation is

huge. >> i couldn't go cheap. i had to look sick. >> when dallas buyers club premiers, the drum beat for oscars starts instantly. >> for most people, it was just like wow, he is on a role. >> he sweeps more than a dozen film industry nominations and awards. now parents of three, his wife by his side every step of the way. >> you won the golden globe, were you genuinely surprised? there has been a ground swell of momentum. >> i was genuinely surprised. i have been genuinely surprised with each victory i have gotten. >> matthew mcconaughey in "dallas buyers club." >> mcconaughey says he is just getting started. >> it is a wonderful moment in my career that is in the middle

of this approach. >> along his approach, a role as a detective troubled by his past, and the search for a serial killer in the hbo series "true detective." >> he's just killing it week after week. >> he is conducting his career as if he expects to be dead at any moment and he wants a legacy. >> it holds true to the projects he seems to be gravitating towards these days. >> these have been similarly focused obsessed characters. a lot live on the fringes of society. they make up rules and laws. there is a freedom that i found in that. >> move the money from your client's pocket into your pocket. >> and then there is his appearance in that other oscar nominated film "the wolf on wall street." >> he can steal the scene.

>> i want to absolut martinis, you know how i like them, and then two more, and then two more every five minutes until one of us passes out. >> it set the tone for the mad nts and the insanity that follows. >> as the insanity of oscar season approaches, whether he brings home a trophy sunday night or not, there's no question he is having a golden moment. >> i know part of the reason i'm sitting here with a nomination is because i put my head down, processed, do the work, enjoyed the experience so much that was reward enough. >> with star power as big as texas, a family that he adores, and finally some oscar recognition, i would say things are turning out more than just all right, all right, all right for the texas boy turned

hollywood super star. i'm michelle turner. thanks for watching. gnt. good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com an unidentified woman was found dead, and police wanted answers. but everything they needed was in the dirt at the crime scene. and it told the story from the beginning to the tragic end. as the sun rose on the farmlands outside delano, california, a farm worker saw something he never expected. that his farm had become a crime scene. >> the scene indicated what was a very violent crime. there was obviously strong evidence initially to indicate